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on’t you hate it when people tell you, you can’t do something? I do, especially when you are trying to pursue a dream and they keep telling you that you’ll never make it!
Now that all twelve of my aunts have passed on to “Real Life”, I can tell this story.
One of them, I’ll call her Sarah, seemed interested in everything I did. I have to admit I enjoyed the time she spent quizzing me about my plans when I was in grade school. Kids love any attention from adults. When I was a senior in high school she wanted to know what I was going to do next.
“Go to college,” I answered. “I’m going to be a doctor.”
“Don’t get your hopes up too high!” she responded, probably with good reason. I was not a good student at that time, but my mind was made up, and I was determined to succeed.
When I returned for Christmas break. She cautionedBeing a doctor was my dream, and I was stubborn enough to make it happen me to make a contingent plan. “You’ll need one,” she said. Then she reminded me that no one in our large family had ever gone to college and certainly I would never become a doctor. I didn’t think she was trying to discourage me, but that she was trying to prepare and protect me from the upcoming doom.
We went through the same scenario every time we met. I never told her my grades, she never asked. But, as the months turned into years she became even more determined that I would not be able to graduate college. I finally came to understand she was not trying to protect me. We were like crabs in a bucket and she was one of the crabs trying to pull me off the lip of the pail and prevent me from escaping what she thought was the lower class. Now, we weren’t rich by any means, but my family never considered ourselves lower class.
I graduated from college, and went medical school, but her story never changed. When I showed her my MD diploma she said, “I never thought you’d make it.” I wanted to say “really?” but I bit my tongue and said “It was a lot of really hard work, but I was determined, and I did it!”
My motto became, (pardon the awful Latin grammar), Non Carburundum illigitimus est. Translated it means something like don’t let others get you down. Ask a Latin scholar for a more literal translation, but don’t be surprised if they tell you the word order is inverted and the tense in wrong and the words aren’t even spelled right. It has long be my philosophy.
Winston Churchill is know for saying, “Never give up, never give up, never give up!”
Tell this story to your kids, Let them laugh and talk about it, Then remind them never give up! In this country, if you can dream it, you can do it! But only if you’re willing to work hard and long for it!
I’ll try to get another post out before Christmas, but as you all know this is a hectic time. So if you don’t hear from me before then, please have a very merry Christmas. Enjoy your friends and families, and be thankful for the “GIFT” we received at this more than tow thousand years ago. God bless you all!